Which genealogy software?

[Sharon1234]

Hello, I am currently looking for a family tree builder that I can use online with the whole family. I have signed up to a few such as Geni and MyHeritage and are researching a few others. I have heard some good things about Famberry on Twitter, has anyone tried it out? It seems to be a cross between family history and a social networking site. If anyone has any advise on which way to go it would be welcome.

[christanel]

Hello Sharron1234 and a warm welcome to the Brit-Gen forums.

I have moved your post to the genealogy software forum so you will receive more ideas from members on what software they use and why. :yes:

I haven't heard of Famberry but then again I don't do twitter or facebook.

I have my tree on TribalPages and offline on RootsMagic.


Christanel

[Nicolina]

I also use Tribal Pages. You can password protect it so that only invited visitors can access it, It's easily edited and perfect for what I need. Also when my laptop crashed I was able to download my tree to my new laptop without any trouble.
As for software, I use both Family Tree and Legacy, which can be downloaded for free.

[Sharon1234]

Thanks for your quick replies. I was looking for something online specifically as I don't want to be the "owner" of the information, but want to build together with my family. I have previously looked at Tribal Pages but it isn't something a whole family can use (we are looking at starting our family tree as a family hobby). I signed up to Famberry last night to see what it was like, it's very pretty, works great on a tablet. I've invited some of my family to see what I built so far, so I'll let you know how they get on. I'll also try Rootsy (another new one, I think).

[Megan Roberts]

If you have a membership to Ancestry then you give anyone you want the right to add and edit your tree. There are 3 basic categories - Guest, Contributor, Editor - and they do not have to have membership to Ancestry (or at least that was the case last time I looked).

[Sharon1234]

Thanks for your help, I will try out Ancestry as well.

[Sharon1234]

So I have been trying out Famberry with my family for the last couple of days. My family love it. It's really simple to use, it doesn't scare my family away with piles of information to fill in. It seems to be UK based, which is good for me. I was able to build my immediate family tree and invite my family in minutes, then I got messages from my family posting up pictures that I have never seen before, which was great. My family also filled in some gaps in my family knowledge by adding other family members to the tree. I'm currently building a timeline for my mum's life as it's her birthday soon and I thought it would make a nice tribute.
At the moment the site is free to post pictures etc. I wasn't sure if this will change, so I emailed their support and they replied (really fast) saying that they may add more features in the future for premium users, but the current features are free.

My family have been able to create a beautiful interactive family tree and we are all learning about our history. I was going to try Ancestry as well, but my family seem to be hooked on using Famberry as a family Facebook, at least its all private.

[Sharon1234]

Forgot, the link to Famberry is www.
famberry.com
I thought it was a US site at first because of the .com but it says it is made in England.

[christanel]

Hi Sharon1234

I did some searching on famberry and some good reviews are out there. I will have to take a look and see just how it differs to TribalPages which does allow others to be added as administrators.

One of the reviews did say it is an English site.

Thanks for the follow up

Christanel

[christanel]

I thought I would sign up to famberry to see just how it worked.

Easy to get an account, then as I was entering my details it wouldn't accept my date of birth. Then I twigged to what it was telling me.

It is using the American format ie:- month, day, year. I do object to that and when I tried to get back in to check whether I could change that format it won't let me in! Ah well if I don't use the account for a month it is automatically deleted.

QED. I stay with TribalPages.

[Sharon1234]

Not sure about the issues you are seeing with dates on Famberry. I use Chrome and the date format is dd/mm/yyyy, e.g the UK standard. I think it picks it up from your machine settings. On my iPad it uses the universal format of yyyy-mm-dd. I like the fact that I can type in for speed rather than use a calendar.

I've managed to grow our tree out to a few hundred. Did I mention that it is so easy to add and modify the tree, I think this is why our tree has grown so fast. I think the tip is to invite your family, so that they can help you grow the tree, I also like how you can identify each person from their photo, definitely makes it more fun to use.

[arryboy]

Well after following this thread I thought I would try it, not very successful for me wouldn't let me add my parents to my tree, got to Grandparents and gave up. Possibly my fault I don't know but don't have many problems using other sites; Arrboy

[christanel]

I am using chrome.
I finally got back in to famberry by resetting my password- which was an easy process. This time the date of birth was in the ddmmyyyy format and it let me type in the day and month but when it came to the year I had to use the up and down arrows.
That is a minor detail.
More problematic is that I can see no way of down/uploading a gedcom file which means that all the info typed in on famberry can't be transferred elsewhere which would make for a lot of work if in the future someone wants to start using offline family tree software as well and all the information has to be typed in again.
I would be rather inclined to do a back up to external drive or USB though as a precaution.

I can see the appeal of this site for family participation but as someone who already has two offline tree programs plus TribalPages (to which I can invite others input) using famberry would be overload for me.

Christanel

[Steve@Famberry]

Hello, I'm Steve Bardouille co-founder of Famberry.

I just want to say thank you to all of you who have signed up and tried Famberry. We really value your feedback & support and are constantly working to improve Famberry to make it easier to use. If you do have any issues you can email our support address or just send an email to me directly, I will be pleased to help you. As mentioned above there should be no problem with date formats or any issues with adding bloodline ancestors, going back as far as you want. We also preserve your tree until you request us to delete it. We do not as yet have a GEDCOM facility as not many people have asked for it, but we will provide it if there is demand.

I built Famberry as a utility to get family members talking, collaborating and discovering their family history, research has shown that this helps family members cope with life's pressures better and improves your health and psychological wellbeing. The most resilient families know their family history.

Famberry is rather different from normal family tree builders as the true aim is to form a closer relationship with your family through collaboration and communication as each family member can add timeline stories or add to the tree, rather than building a family tree in isolation. It's been described as Facebook for families. We call it 'social genealogy' and we hope that you will use Famberry to help your family discover their own family history with you. Families who have used it in this way have told us that they have more of a sense of belonging and it has helped start multi-generational conversations within families, with whole families starting to care about their family history.

Again, thanks for all the kind comments, support and feedback, they will not be ignored. I hope to see you collaborating with your family on Famberry soon.

Steve Bardouille
http://www.famberry.com

PS. Yes we are UK based ... and proud.

[arryboy]

Well you can't knock that, the site owner offering help and other assistance as well, never seen that happening on some of our larger sites. Speaking for myself I will try again after I get back from my Hols. arryboy